David Fogel was born in 1891 in the town of Satanov in Podolia. In 1912 he moved to Vienna where he stayed until 1925. During World War I, he was arrested and spent time in internment camps. In 1917, he began publishing short lyrical poems in the Hebrew press. He married in 1919, but his wife soon died from tuberculosis, an illness he also suffered from since 1920. His collection of poetry, Lifnei ha-sha’ar ha-afel (Before the Dark Gate), was published in 1923 in Vienna. In 1925 he moved to Paris and settled there. While in Paris, he wrote prose and poetry and remarried. In 1929 he and his new wife emigrated to Palestine and his daughter was born. However, their settlement in Palestine was not successful, and soon after they returned to Paris. Upon his return to Europe he gave a series of lectures concerning language and style in modern Hebrew literature. When World War II erupted, Fogel and his family were in Paris. His wife and daughter were saved, but he was arrested by the Vichy Police. The last time he was seen alive was in 1942. From this point on he disappeared; information concerning his whereabouts was fragmentary and contradictory. He was probably released from internment camp, but in 1944 he was arrested again by the Gestapo and sent to Drancy, a transit camp for French Jews. He was later sent to Auschwitz and murdered there.